


i'll show you where it's at

by savon



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Case Fic, Drowning, Gen, Ghost Rats, Mentions of the following:, The Pied Piper - Freeform, i wrote this mostly because i have a lot of feelings about the pied piper
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:01:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22379878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/savon/pseuds/savon
Summary: Hamelin, Germany. Lots of ghost rats in a river.
Relationships: Ryan Bergara & Shane Madej
Comments: 16
Kudos: 13





	i'll show you where it's at

**Author's Note:**

> This all was inspired by the Crispian St. Peters song, [The Pied Piper.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYODJsg8_dA)
> 
> Also it seems like I don't care about the quality of my writing nearly as much as writing so. What are we doing here

Rats. There were so many rats. Rats all over the place. Rats on rats. Rats climbing over each other, stepping into each other's little rat faces, their naked tails interlocking for milliseconds, then clutching to a new rat's tail.

Then the water frizzled, and the rats were gone.

"So," petted Shane his beard that he didn't have at the moment scholarlily, "I guess I have got to admit now – ghost rats are real."

Ryan and he were standing at the shore of the river Weser in Germany, and the river Weser was swarming with ghost rats.

How about that.

"You know, when we flew out here to sunny Hamelin, I sure wasn't expecting a baker's dozen of baker's dozens of ghosts rats in a river, but here we are. These are ghost rats, Ryan. Evidently. What do you say? Isn't this what you were waiting for?"

But Ryan wasn't saying anything.

Not that Shane actually expected him to say anything upon finding a riverbedful of seven hundred year old ghost rats, because honestly, the shock of that was what was making him so calm now, but Ryan and him were very different people.

Considering this, Ryan looked like he was on the verge of a major breakdown. He was taking kinda heavy breaths, in fact, and his hand holding the monster radio was shaking with elegant little tremors. Shane wouldn't have minded if he dropped the device into the well of Ghost Rats.

"You wanna do an EVP-session, Ryan? See if any squeaks come through from the Ghost Rats, Ryan?" Shane's behaviour was unhelpful, he knew, but at least Ryan snapped out of it.

"You know what? I might as well. Maybe the kids are here too." A thought occurred to him. "You could try to speak to them, Mr. Senf."

Shane made a face, both at the bashing of his German skills and at the mention of the kids.

Yes, the reason they were staring at ghost rats in the Weser was that they were trying to find out what happened in 1284 to the 130 German/Saxon children the Pied Piper allegedly lured into the Weser after not getting his promised pay for luring out the rats of the rat-infested town of Hamelin, which was Hameln with an extra i for no reason at all.

He had a magic flute, too, to lure the beings with.  
Honestly, the image of a town of rats dancing after this hatted little feller, as Shane imagined it, was pretty cute, disregarding how it ended with the rats dancing into the river.

There were many theories as to where the Piper might have taken the children. To the river? To an empty field nearby to settle down? To Transylvania, also to settle down, as the first Saxons there? Like a big school trip. And now, kids, the moment we've all been waiting for, the thing we walked through half of Europe for – the Tordai Split! King László's horse left it here doing whatever, the Piper could have said if this theory wasn't completely nuts.

It wasn't, but well – it was boring.

So, Ryan turned the radio on.

"Hello?" said Ryan.

"Krrgh," said the radio.

"That's rats for ya," said Shane good-naturedly, because he didn't really know what rats sounded like.

Ryan was unimpressed.

"There's so many of them! Something should be coming across. Like, with their combined energy, or you know–"

He shook the radio, with intention, this time, because sure, that would help.

"Hello, I'm Ryan, this is Shane, we're here to investigate the case of the Pied Piper of Hamelin and the 130 children who went missing from the town. If there's anything in this river that has a clue as to what might have happened to them – do let us know."

"Zrrr," agreed the radio, and the rats kept wriggling in the water.

Ryan and Shane stared into the whirl of negative rats, slinking around mutely in a well-practiced pattern.

"That's kind of beautiful," hummed Shane. "Poor little critters."

Ryan switched off the EVP. 

"You know, finding hundreds of ghost rats is magnificent," he pocketed the radio and removed the GoPro from his chest to get a better look at the ghost rats for the viewers. "Everyone will go bonkers. And this proves that the Pied Piper was definitely real! So him taking away the kids must be true, too. What a bastard. 'Didn't get my gold pieces, taking away everyone under 15 now! See you all in Baia Mare!'"

He was very careful not to touch the water with the camera, fearing that the ghost rats would scurry away. It was a miracle as it was, the fact that they were still there, not just since he and Shane have started filming but since their untimely mass-death. Although an untimely mass-death might do that to you, that much was probable.

"You know," he said to Shane, "I like the guy. I don't want to think he drowned all one hundred and thirty children in this river, I'm leaning more towards the making a settlement somewhere a bit further away, but my newest and henceforth only correct theory is that the children weren't happy and doing great in Hamelin and the Piper saved them and became all their dad with his magic pipe and all and they became a gigantic found family."

Shane's eyes widened.

"I like your thinking, my friend," he nodded knowingly. This really was the most idealistic theory yet, but well, two ghoul boys can dream, and dream they did.

"Uhuh." They fell into a serene silence, watching the stellar swirl of the long-gone rats' shadows in the river for a little longer. It was like cloud watching.

"Well, I am now a firm believer in Ghost Rats," said Shane and extended a hand to Ryan to help him stand back up. "Thanks for hanging out with us, Rats."

Ryan and Shane, for the lack of a better idea, bowed and went back to their car.

"That was a lot of fun, Shane," said Ryan as he climbed into the passenger seat, "I am only mildly losing my mind." 

Shane made a noise of agreement, revving up the engine.

"I think we've got this made. Lots of Ghost Rats recorded, we're going to be trending forever, we're losing our sanity in German rivers. All the keys to all the successes. Let's get back to the Piper-man later, yeah?"

Ryan wasn't about to say no.


End file.
